Among Native people of Alaska, the old ways, the indigenous arts, reflect tens of thousands of years of experience in a place. They are what poet Gary Snyder has called "grandmotherly knowledge, grandfatherly knowledge." Inseparable from Native values- especially a sense of the relatedness of all things- closely tied to the use of local materials, and dependent upon the seasonal rounds of subsistence activities, Alaska's traditional Native arts are tremendously varied and rich with meaning.

When looking at Alaska Native art, one must take into account the cultural geography of a state which is five times the size of Ohio and covers four time